Boost your State Pension by up to £25 a week - oh really?

moneyistooshorttomention

Anyone else feeling more than a little cynical about this Government proposal that has just come out? Idea being to pay in anywhere between £900 and £25,000 and the deal is you get a bit extra come the time (if in a certain agegroup).

I have interpreted it as "Hand us over some of your savings and we promise to give you a very low rate of interest on them" and "BTW....don't expect us to sign in blood that you will definitely receive your savings back again:cool:".

What's the betting its a backdoor way to take some of pensioners' savings and then they find an excuse subsequently not to hand them back as extra pension as per promise?

I'd want them signing in blood for sure before I trusted them to hand my money back again later ...and wouldn't believe them even then

Remember those SERPS promises. Well....once bitten twice shy....and I've had some of that part of my pension stolen off by me the Government two ways over when they subsequently rewrote the rules for that.

michaels

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Anyone else feeling more than a little cynical about this Government proposal that has just come out? Idea being to pay in anywhere between £900 and £25,000 and the deal is you get a bit extra come the time (if in a certain agegroup).

I have interpreted it as "Hand us over some of your savings and we promise to give you a very low rate of interest on them" and "BTW....don't expect us to sign in blood that you will definitely receive your savings back again:cool:".

What's the betting its a backdoor way to take some of pensioners' savings and then they find an excuse subsequently not to hand them back as extra pension as per promise?

I'd want them signing in blood for sure before I trusted them to hand my money back again later ...and wouldn't believe them even then

Remember those SERPS promises. Well....once bitten twice shy....and I've had some of that part of my pension stolen off by me the Government two ways over when they subsequently rewrote the rules for that.

What did happen in the end over serps contributions - I thought there was going to be some sort of scheme announced to compensate for benefits alledgly already accrued?

moneyistooshorttomention

I don't know the details on SERPs. When I was paying into Serps the deal was that it be based on the best x number of years of your worklife (think it was best 20 years?) and that changed to being based on the average. The other Serps theft was something along the lines of paying you less £ per year in the Serps scheme than had previously been the case.

From memory I think that was the excuses they made to keep some of my money and I am going to be down (at a very very rough guesstimate) by about £10-£15 per week on that part of my pension to what I should be.

That's not to mention the fact that I saw Serps as a job pension (rather than a State pension) in effect if you see what I mean. However, my job pension still turned up at 60 as per promise, but Serps is postponed until my revised SPA (along with my State Pension).

Tancred

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Anyone else feeling more than a little cynical about this Government proposal that has just come out? Idea being to pay in anywhere between £900 and £25,000 and the deal is you get a bit extra come the time (if in a certain agegroup).

I have interpreted it as "Hand us over some of your savings and we promise to give you a very low rate of interest on them" and "BTW....don't expect us to sign in blood that you will definitely receive your savings back again:cool:".

What's the betting its a backdoor way to take some of pensioners' savings and then they find an excuse subsequently not to hand them back as extra pension as per promise?

I'd want them signing in blood for sure before I trusted them to hand my money back again later ...and wouldn't believe them even then

Remember those SERPS promises. Well....once bitten twice shy....and I've had some of that part of my pension stolen off by me the Government two ways over when they subsequently rewrote the rules for that.

I cannot comment until the full details are released but it seems a good idea in principle. I would welcome the opportunity to increase my state pension entitlement.

dryhat

A voluntary "bail-in" and a promise to pay you back from a bunch of crooks?

No thanks.

Perelandra

Although it's not quite the same thing, the "State Second Pension" was supposed to give extra pension for those who pay in as well. That didn't turn out so well for me!

So I will also be cynical about this- and I probably shouldn't be.

Graham_Devon

I really just fail to see the point in this.

OK, I see that it could buy some votes.

But this will help out the people who need help the very least.

Those that need the extra £25 maximum per week won't be those who have up to £25k sloshing around that they can commit to a one off lump sum pension payment.

It's just ridiculous. Helping the wealthy again at the expense of everyone one in society.

MrRee_2

£25 a week = £1300 a year ... which will be taxed.

The Lump sum you pay has already been taxed I guess - OR, would it be untaxed income?

If untaxed it becomes an interesting option as it drops your tax bill. I would be up for it.

Pay in £25,000 lump sum and gain £1,300 a year taxed? I would have to live a long time to get that back!

Especially as, within the next 10 years, the state pension will only start to pay out at 70. Even then it will be means tested and I may not get any at all as I have a handsome final salary pension.

Graham_Devon

MrRee wrote: »

£25 a week = £1300 a year ... which will be taxed.

And will rise with inflation.

This is only available to people qualifying for the pension now.

antrobus

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Anyone else feeling more than a little cynical about this Government proposal that has just come out? .....

Well the Guardian likes it; "It could be a very good idea if the price is right." Some chap from HL likes it; "In principle the terms offered by the government for these additional state pension deals look very attractive."

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jan/27/state-pension-top-ups-how-scheme-work

Linton

Looks like cynics cant do arithmetic and know little about the cost of pensions. The proposal, which I guess would only apply to people who have not been able to get the full quota of NI years is much more generous than is available on the market. For £900 you get an extra inflation adjusted pension of £52. That's a 5.7% annuity rate. Commercial rates for an inflation proofed pension are about 3%.